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Police, protesters clash as officers move to extract ballot boxes from Seoul polling station

Published: 05 Jun. 2026, 11:10 Updated: 05 Jun. 2026, 13:22

Riot officers clash with protesters on site as they try to enter the polling station in Jamsil 7-dong in Songpa District, southern Seoul, on June 5. [YONHAP]

The police and protesters briefly clashed on Friday morning after the former arrived at a polling station in Songpa District, southern Seoul, to extract two ballot boxes, which the protesters had blockaded for 35 hours.

Following a ballot paper shortage that disrupted voting at more than a dozen polling stations in Seoul on Wednesday, or Election Day, roughly 300 people — including YouTubers — who alleged election fraud crowded the Jamsil 7-dong Precinct 2 polling station, temporarily set up at a senior citizens' center at an apartment complex. They were apparently prepared for a prolonged standoff, as some had brought more than 100 plastic folding chairs. Around 1,000 riot officers from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and Songpa Police Station were dispatched and arrived at the scene at around 7:50 a.m.

The sudden early-morning deployment caught protesters off guard and turned the scene chaotic. When the police announced that they had received an explicit request from the National Election Commission to help maintain order and secure a route for the vehicle transporting the ballot boxes, some protesters responded by singing the national anthem. Others locked arms in front of the doors to block officers from entering.

Ballot boxes belatedly transported from a polling station Songpa District, southern Seoul, arrive at a vote-counting center set up in the district on June 5, and ballot counting begins under the watch of election observers. [YONHAP]

When officers attempted to enter through a rear door, dozens of demonstrators moved to block that as well. Protesters chanted, “Are the police really the people's guardians?” and “Hold the line!”

The police — in teams of four — then began physically carrying individual protesters away from the rear entrance. In response, those removed shouted, “Guarantee our right to vote!” as they were taken away from the area. Some called out, “You must know when to refuse an unjust order.”

Within an hour of the riot unit's deployment, police had cleared the rear entrance, entered the polling station and retrieved and loaded the ballot boxes onto a transport vehicle. The boxes contain more than 2,000 ballots that the National Election Commission must count to formally confirm Oh Se-hoon's victory in the Seoul mayoral race.

BY SON SUNG-BAE, HAN CHAN-WOO, KIM YE-JEONG [[email protected]]